Ongoing Research-The Navy Response to the Nat Turner Uprising

1831 newspaper iillustration of the Nat Turner uprising (Library of Congress)

Here is one of the articles we are working for the next issue of The Daybook.  One of the key events in the antebellum era was the 1831 slave revolt in Southampton County, Virginia.  Led by slave Nat Turner, the uprising killed sixty-one whites without regard to age or gender.  Fearful that the local revolt was just one small part of a larger revolt, state and local authorities called on the Federal government to provide assistance.  Two sloops-of-war, USS Natchez and USS Warren, along with the personnel Gosport Navy Yard answered the request.